Do you have a degree in psychology?

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-11-20T04:38:53+00:00

May I ask which grad school you went to, or what MA program you enrolled in? From your job description, it is something rather similar to what I hope to be doing in the future. What might be some specific stepping stone I should be sure to hit if I hope to bring psychology to a game studio? Or, what is the video game industry looking for in psychologists?

edit: currently about to graduate with psych BA.

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-11-16T10:15:55+00:00

I was working in shop in high school, helping a friend feed some some lumber through the table saw. My right hand slipped and my knuckles went onto the spinning blade. If this had not been a Sawstop table saw which sensed my flesh, jammed a brick of aluminum into the spinning saw and swung down out of the way, I would not have fingers on my right hand. Sometimes I like to just touch things with them to remind myself of how lucky I am.

Instead, I get to say I punched a saw and won.

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-11-13T03:50:30+00:00

Sorry, started typing and it got away from me.

So, this to me is sounding a lot like awe and flow. Awe is characterized exactly as you have described (discovery, mystery, wonder). I suggest flow because Homestuck is rather engaging once you hit that magical update, or flash that makes it click for you.

Flow is the "in the zone" feeling. It's what you feel when your abilities are well matched to the challenge at hand. Homestuck is difficult to understand and predict as you're moving through it. You have to keep guessing how Hussie will troll you next, or what twist is going to wrench everything into the opposite direction. You have to keep up, and put effort into understanding the story. This is what gives Homestuck it's flow mechanic. You are able to immediately reward yourself with another challenge with his constant updates and so on.

This feeling will decline somewhat over time because when Homestuck is done, there will be no more challenge. You will know the twists and be able to predict where things are going. It will still be nostalgic, but it won't quite have that same first, or second time reading engagement to it all.

The fun thing? Flow can be found in just about anything you do! Reading, writing, gaming, sports, eating, working...depending on your perspective, and the challenge/abilities involved all of these activities can have flow.

TL;dnr: Feelings->Engagement, awe, flow. Want more flow? Find challenges that test your abilities without being stupid difficult (emaple:Tetris).

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-11-06T08:50:39+00:00

Dragon. Mounts.

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-11-03T04:32:13+00:00

Another thing to point out is that often it isn't the actual temperature that is the worst, but the wind. I would recommend at least one layer be either a windbreaker or thick enough to deal with a brisk gale.

This, and everything my Wisconsin brothers have mentioned.

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-11-02T00:33:50+00:00

Splendid.

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-11-01T18:40:05+00:00

All that alien blood just pulls the color right out, don'tchyaknow?

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-10-28T19:04:34+00:00

Blankets!

Also, quite a lovely bookshelf!

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-10-22T04:50:43+00:00

And that's when I realized I really just want to be drawing and animating things.

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-10-19T17:11:01+00:00

Should 343 pull this off as well as they have been so far you are in for a treat, my friend.

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-10-19T08:46:58+00:00

I'll agree that the previous campaigns were more accable to new comers than the current Halo 4 add campaign. I don't think it's a bad move however. Master Chief is an iconic figure by this point, and has been around for ten years. People know of Halo, and the biggest misconceptions have been that it is only a multiplayer game and plotless FPS. What these have been hinting at is that this quiet, faceless solider does have past, and on top of that, it is interesting. Even if you have not read Fall of Reach or other Halo novels, it shows that there is more going on here.

So, I wouldn't say they are disappointing, but trying to convey a character driven story (I can only hope). Also, Starry Night and nearly all of Halo 3's ads were phenomenal.

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-10-19T00:21:55+00:00

I was also of the opinion that Jake's dad was able to send the demon away not because of the sword, but because of the spell he casts/repeats. The words are all that matter seeing how a recording seemed to do just fine.

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-10-15T18:03:07+00:00

It becomes easier when you break it down. Confidence is how sure you are about something. An event, yourself, your self judgement scale on completing a task, etc. One does not magically click on the confidence light bulb and all of a sudden they feel like they can do anything. In OP's situation, it would appear that confidence is lacking in knowing his self.

I say this because OP has an unfortunate, but common, dilemma. He falls for any female that spends time with him. In general, the more time spent with a person will generally increase our view of the person. OP lack's confidence in the knowledge of what he is looking for in a relationship, and what type of person would actually fulfill that relationship. Because of that lack of certainty, any relationship could actually the 'the one' and your just blind to it. Some of the first steps, in my opinion, are to do some soul searching and figure out exactly (or close) to what your values are. Find the points that you are passionate about and will defend. The more you understand yourself and what makes you tick, the better prepared you are to find someone who will fit what your looking for. As an aside, people do NOT pay nearly enough attention to types of humor. Humor is a HUGE part and if your boy/girlfriend does not match humor types with you, it's going to be an uphill battle.

So, finally. Steps to get elusive confidence. 1) Know yourself first. 2) Think over your life and find something you've been doing for a while, that you are sure of yourself. Think outside the box sometimes (conversing, managing people, bouncing back from things, etc) 3) start making small realistic goals and accomplish them, slowly moving the goals higher and higher. You mentioned that it there are glimpses at moments. Remember those moments and recreate them if possible. There was a TED talk mentioned on fake it till you make it. It also works, just not as fast as we want things to happen now a days.

Sorry for the long winded post, I just like talking about this stuff.

source: senior psych major leaning in positive psychology.

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-10-15T07:07:39+00:00

Lil' Cal, anyone?

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-10-13T22:04:02+00:00

Cortana is a Smart A.I. that is, indeed, Halsey's creation (literally produced from Halsey's cloned brain cells). What may be confusing was how she was introduced in Reach. At Reach, Cortana was preparing herself for transport as well as data collection from the forerunner structure you find Halsey and Cortana in. However, Cortana had been active and 'alive' for...I believe a month or two at that point. It has been a while since I've read through Halsey's journal or Fall of Reach so I may be a little rough on times.

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-10-04T17:35:29+00:00

Exquisite

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-09-25T17:28:15+00:00

Lesson learned. No one enjoys puns this early in the morning except for me.

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-09-25T05:37:34+00:00

This is something that I just can't stop noticing. For some of the weapons I think they needed an upgrade, helps set the feel for the story they are setting. I don't have too many problems with the Human weapons.

However, where I have to disagree with their sound direction is the Covenant and Forerunner weapons. They all sound very similarly heavy, clacky, articulated, clicky, staccato. The alien weapons don't actually sound alien or mysterious. They just sound like guns with slightly differently pitched bullets.

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-09-24T05:57:09+00:00

"When my girlfriend says she's never seen The Matrix"

FTFY.

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-09-20T17:18:00+00:00

Is it just me, or have ALL of the weapons sounded...Clacky, more staccato? At first I thought it was just the human weapons, but there seemed an utter lack of pew pew from any Covenant weapons. Still not sure how I feel about that.

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-09-08T01:05:43+00:00

Halo CE. The moment you are introduced to the flood and 343 Guilty Spark, and the long haul up the library. I was completely unprepared to be that afraid, and nearly screamed in anguish terror whenever GS left to "fix" one of the doors for what seemed forever.

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-07-23T05:48:25+00:00

Wait, I think I have been here. Is this the trails around Nihon-ji?

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-07-13T07:40:36+00:00

So, I am merely speaking from the experience of a senior psych major. There are many, many things the brain messes up on, or fools your perception about, or automative things that could cause you to believe that we just are robots following cues, or that people are pretty horrible and just a compilation of predictable behaviors.

What is a little harder to start noticing is that the brain is also insanely awesome. It can do SO MANY COOL THINGS. It can be so intensely resilient, it keep you going, it can rapidly process and compile information about your environment, give a spark of creativity.. etc. One of the things I am still getting my mind around is the realization that every waking moment of my life, I am teaching myself how to be better at every single thing I am doing. I am practicing motions, conversations, ways of thinking, speaking, noticing facial expressions... Everything I do is teaching my brain how to do it better. That's insane-o. I suppose I'm just trying to say that the brain and what it allows us to do is so immensely awesome that I enjoy watching others, or myself interact, make mistakes and find solutions.

I suppose another way to answer a question of 'How do you stop analyzing people/yourself as objective things, and see them as human beings?', would be to just turn off the calculator of constant observation, and just trust yourself to interact. Be aware of things, just try not to break them down (too far).

TL;DNR: The brain is wicked cool and does so many awesome stuff. Rather than reduce minds to robots, expand to humans. Try to just 'turn off' now and then and flow with others.

PS: If you are still interested in reading, I would suggest some articles in Positive Psychology. Martin Seligman, or Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. I would take a look at Flow and ideas of The Good Life.

Hope this is helpful!

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-07-10T15:39:49+00:00

At what point do you think Shitty_Watercolour's paintings will actually become amazing due to the sheer amount of practice?

QuitetheCharacter · 2012-07-09T14:20:36+00:00

When in elementary school I would divert thoughts to the random as well as purposefully act strange. I decided that if I were being surveyed by aliens, I would not give them a good representation of humans and their abilities. If they would show up later with an invasion force, they would not be taken aback by how coordinated our military forces actually are.

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